Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 396 Chaos ([-])

After all, Li Zhengang didn't get a letter of approval from Mo Ming.In fact, this is also understandable. They have a strong city, thousands of elite soldiers, and more than [-] acres of farmland under the city. They are living a good life. How could they work for you just because you have a letter of appointment?Only local armed forces like Guo Papai and Monk Zhai Wu who have no food, grass, and soldiers will take Dashun's appointment seriously.

But it's not bad if things are done like this, at least the leader Mo who is said to have come from overseas didn't explicitly reject Dashun's appointment.Judging by the attitude of him and the generals under him, I'm afraid they are just waiting to see what happens. If Dashun gradually gains a foothold in Shandong, then they will naturally surrender; if Dashun fails to gain a foothold in Shandong, Then of course everything will stop.So, after all, this matter still depends on when Guo Shuai can really control the situation in Shandong, and when the capital will send a large army to the south for reinforcements. Without these two things, if you want to let this group of masters who don't see rabbits and don't scatter eagles be driven by you, then What a fool's dream.

After Li Zhengang left, Mo Ming and others immediately held an emergency meeting, mainly to discuss how to deal with Dashun's solicitation.To be honest, the mainland has been lacking a clear attitude towards the various forces of the Ming Dynasty. They only ask for population, and everything else is entrusted to the frontline commanders.Mo Ming used to think that such a policy was very good, and it would hinder him the least, but now he also felt that the local guys were really irresponsible, digging such a big hole for himself.You must know that if one of them is handled carelessly and is caught by someone with a heart, he will take a lot of political risks.Therefore, at present, it is better to pull more people to back up.

However, which of the military leaders present was easy to get along with, as soon as they asked the real question, they started to practice Tai Chi, and the nonsense of "you make the decision" and "we listen to you" started to come out, making Mo Ming The head is as big as a bean.On the contrary, Xiao Xi, the company commander of the 102nd company of the army, is quite kind. He expressed his support for accepting the position appointed by the court of Dashun. This doesn't mean anything, it's just for convenience.After all, if everyone accepts the positions appointed by the Qing court, it may cause even greater criticism in the local area. In addition, the people on the east coast are currently in serious conflict with the gentry and literati, and there is no basis for cooperation with the Nanming court.Therefore, it is better to accept Dashun's solicitation for the time being. Anyway, it is only in name, and it is convenient for him to act in Shandong. As for the future, let's see.

Mo Ming looked at a group of unhealthy subordinates and felt annoyed, so she stopped asking for their opinions and decided to accept the post of "Ninghai Defense Envoy" appointed by Dashun.But it was only in name, in principle, one would not go to Jinan to meet with the superior, and the other would not accept military command. In short, it would maintain the current state of independence, and at the same time express goodwill towards the Dashun regime.Dashun plundered military salaries, and the east bank collected people. The two sides coexisted peacefully and jointly dealt with possible counterattacks by the armed forces of Shandong landlords and gentry.

After finishing this matter, Mo Ming recruited Luo Tiansheng and Jin Wugui, and accompanied by them, they began to inspect the castle construction site and nearby farming matters. May is almost over, and there is not much time left for the people on the east bank. At present, the construction of the east city wall has been basically completed, and the artillery brothers have begun to install artillery on the gun tower; More than 5 people have invested in it, and it is estimated that it may take more than a month for the wall to be completed.

After most of the castle wall is completed, most of the manpower has been transferred to the headquarters, warehouses, underground ammunition depots, clinics, barracks, prisons, residences, drinking water treatment facilities, public bathhouses, canteens, toilets and other facilities in the city. All the materials used in the construction of the building came from the bricks and stones transported back after the city walls of Ninghai Prefecture and Fushan County were blown up.Under the strict standards of the people on the east coast, these bricks and stones may not be qualified for wall repairs, but they are no problem at all for repairing buildings in the city.After all the buildings are completed, the city will have the capacity to accommodate thousands of people living at the same time. The castle designer firmly believes that it is impossible for such a strong fortress to be conquered in the Far East.

Next to the wall outside the castle is a large area of ​​farmland opened up by people on the east coast.These farmlands are developed along the west, south and east walls of Yantai Fort (the outside of the north wall is a sand bar with barren land), forming a belt of farmland surrounding the city wall.The farmland belt extends about 120 meters from the city wall, and the total area is less than two hundred acres.Most of these fields are planted with various vegetables, and there are also a lot of soybeans for the replenishment of naval ships.

There are two barbed wire fences not far apart on the periphery of the farmland belt. The barbed wire fences are about as high as a person, and they are wound on evenly distributed wooden piles.There are barbs hanging on the barbed wire, and iron picks are inserted between the two barbed wires as usual, and some braziers are fixed on the wooden posts for lighting at night.Outside the barbed wire fence is a wide moat, two meters deep, filled with river water from the Dagu Jia River, which flows into Zhifu Bay on the east side after going around the city for a week.

Outside the moat is a large area of ​​reclaimed farmland with an area of ​​no less than [-] mu. At this time, corn and sweet potatoes have been sown.After inspecting the soil texture here, the technicians from the Ministry of Agriculture solemnly suggested that the same intercropping of sweet potatoes and corn as in the New China colony should be carried out here, that is, four rows of sweet potatoes would be planted with one row of corn.These two crops are not very picky, with strong adaptability and relatively high yields, which are suitable for the actual situation of Yantaibao today.

They planted it once last year, and the yield was low, less than 400 catties per mu, which was worse than that of Xinhua Castle, which claims to be barren. It set a new low per unit yield of sweet potato and corn intercropping in China.However, this output is definitely much higher than the output of wheat and corn commonly grown in Shandong, which surprised many Ming Dynasty refugees who cultivated here.Even after the harvest in autumn and winter last year, some refugees from the Ming Dynasty carried some sweet potatoes and corn seeds and disappeared, and they probably fled back to cultivate themselves.

The area opened up this year is much larger than last year, because people from the East Coast now have abundant human resources.These sweet potatoes and corn were sown as early as last month when the soil temperature just rose. The growth period takes about 4 months, that is, they can be harvested in mid-to-late August.These seeds have been optimized, and last year's raw land has been treated for a year, such as adding farmyard manure, plant ash, silt, etc., and the soil is now fertilized a lot. This year's grain output should be considerable.

And in August, the potatoes near Rishiri Island, Heishui Port, and Dabo are almost ready to be harvested. If the people on the east coast have enough time, they may be able to plant another crop of potatoes near Yantai, and then rush to harvest. Harvest when it snows at the end of November, then the food reserves in the entire fortress area will be much more abundant.The so-called don't panic when you have food in your hands. At that time, people on the east coast may be able to take advantage of the chaos to accommodate more refugees.

Since most of the people working in the fields were forcibly captured, the enthusiasm for working must not be too high. However, with the assistance of a large number of cattle, horses and other livestock in the camp, they completed the field work very quickly last month. Deep plow, and then sow the hope for the next year.Most of these people were former tenant farmers. They were very excited about the promise of the people on the east coast to allocate land to them, but they also maintained a certain degree of suspicion. After all, anyone can say empty words, and no one will believe you until you see them.And I heard that these Yi people (although they claim to be descendants of the Song people) will take them across the ocean by boat to another place thousands of miles away, how can this be so!My family's ancestral graves, ancestral halls and so on are all here. Is there any chance to come back after this life?

Some people who were unwilling to cross the ocean began to flee one after another, but more people chose to stay behind.After all, even if you don’t think about your family, you still have to think about what to eat when you go out. Now it’s the season outside, and you don’t have any food left. Not long after you ran out, you were either chased back by the barbarian cavalry from the east bank, or you starved to death outside. In the wilderness, it is really impossible.But if you stay here, sooner or later, people from the east coast will ship it away, and then go to some unknown foreign country, what should I do?In this way, many refugees of the Ming Dynasty were constantly entangled and wandering between reality and emotion until they were loaded on a ship by people from the east coast and sent to the rear.

After inspecting the fields, Mo Ming went to the pier outside Dongcheng to check the construction of the pier.Due to the dumping of a large amount of construction waste (demolished city walls, houses), people on the east coast have already filled a long section of the trestle in the bay.After the ground of the trestle bridge is tamped hard later, it will be repaired with masonry cement, and almost a permanent wharf trestle bridge will be formed.

In addition to trestles, quite a few refugees built forts and land defense bunkers on Zhifu Island.Although the possibility of the enemy attacking from the sea is unlikely, it is always right to be prepared. Therefore, building a few forts and placing a dozen large and small artillery can almost cover the entire bay.In addition to Zhifu Island, a fort with seven or eight cannons and a small coastal defense fortress will also be built on Kongtong Island.On this island, there is a temporary resettlement camp for refugees set up by people from the east coast. In addition, there is a nitrate field and a gunpowder configuration workshop. The strategic location is also relatively important, so it cannot be ignored.After the construction of this fort is completed, together with the fort on Zhifu Island, it will firmly block the direction of the enemy's attack at sea. In addition, the fleet of the people on the east coast stationed in the bay can basically do heavy damage to the enemy in the future. Even annihilated.

On June 1644, 6, Guo Sheng, the envoy of Shandong Jiedu of Dashun stationed in Jinan, officially confirmed Mo Ming as the envoy of Ninghai defense of Dashun, and at the same time transferred Li Zhengang to the county magistrate of Yantai County, Dengzhou Prefecture of Dashun.

(End of this chapter)